


what happens in vermont...

by Sodium_K



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Bad Parent Willis Todd, Fluff, Gen, Good Parent Catherine Todd, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Not Red Hood, Jason Todd is Not Robin, it's not willis tho :(, oops! ella commits a murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29730045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sodium_K/pseuds/Sodium_K
Summary: an different storyline where Ella, instead of going to jail after killing her husband, finished med school and then goes to Gotham to track down her nephew.
Relationships: Catherine Todd & Jason Todd, Catherine Todd & Jason Todd & Willis Todd, Jason Todd & Original Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	what happens in vermont...

Ella had literally never been this mad at anyone, ever, in her entire life. Saying she was “mad” was a _huge fucking understatement_. Her hands shook as she opened the door to her house, and she walked through the living room - where _he_ was, drinking like nothing had happened. She had to restrain herself from physically assaulting him; he was stronger than her, after all. Instead, she went to the wardrobe in her room, kneeling down and reaching for the safe. In the safe was her handgun - the only gun in her house - and a small carton of ammunition. As she loaded the gun, her mind drifted back to the day she had gotten it; the day she had announced her engagement to her family.

Her mother had pulled her away from the dinner, pressing the cold, smooth metal of the gun into her hands and looking into her eyes. She told her to hang onto the gun for the rest of her life, to turn it on Raymond should he ever lay a hand on her. At the time, Ella had simply laughed in her mother’s face, naive and certain that Raymond would do such a thing. 

Well. He’d never put his hands on her, but this was quite possibly worse. She was glad she had kept her promise to her mother. As she walked back to her husband, she remembered asking her grandmother why she had a gun mounted on the wall. “ _Putting down mad dogs_.” Her grandmother had said, and up until now, Ella had thought that her grandmother was being literal. _Actual_ rabid dogs were more deserving of respect and sorrow than Raymond was. Raymond saw the gun in her hand and bolted into a standing position. In that moment, Ella did not fire. Instead, a thought flashed through her mind; the courts would rule this first-degree murder. First-degree would be twenty years in jail. Twenty years would be fine, if it wasn’t for Jason. Sure, she’d lost contact with his parents, left them on bad terms, but there was always a chance to reconnect. Going to jail would take away that chance, and she’d miss Jason’s _entire_ childhood. Her poorly-timed moment of self-reflection had given Raymond the chance to run to the kitchen and grab a knife. She moved closer to him, and he lunged for her, dragging the knife across her cheek. It cut all the way through her face, the blade scraping against her teeth and even going so deep that it cut into her gums. She screamed and kneed him in the gut, pushing him off of her. The knife raked across her shoulder as Raymond fell, and she pointed the gun at Raymond’s head, pulling the trigger.

It was point-blank. 

The blood from her wound filled her mouth, causing her to spit it out, and an idea came to mind. She swiped her hands against her wound, and went through her house, wiping blood on the walls and door handles, covering her tracks and making it looked like Raymond had attacked her before she had grabbed the gun. Then, she went back to where the body was, sitting near it and dialing 911.

“Hello?” She said, very real hysteria creeping into her voice, layered on top of a little acting, “My husband just -- he just attacked me, and I shot him! Oh my God, I shot him!” 

The police got there incredibly quickly, as it was a small, quiet town where not much happened. They saw the horrific wound on her face, and Ella got sent to the hospital while they did their investigation. The court eventually ruled it as self-defense, and Ella was released from the hospital after three weeks.

She attempted to track down her sister once again, but after multiple failed attempts, one of her friends gently suggested that her behavior was unhealthy, and that she should take a break from the search to focus on healing from the incident with her husband. Reluctantly, she left it alone, going back to university. For the next four years, Ella focused entirely on her studies, channeling her determination into nursing. When she graduated, she stared out at the sea of faces, sadly taking in the distinct lack of Haywood eyes. She got a job in the hospital soon after, and she quickly learned (through tactics that may or may not be legal) that Sheila and Willis had split up a little while back, with Sheila leaving the US and Jason living with Willis. That explained her inability to find them.

They had been living in Gotham, and Ella bought the first plane ticket there without giving it a second thought. When she got to Gotham, she realized the flaw in her plan. She knew that Jason lived in Gotham, but she had no idea _where_ in Gotham he lived. She sighed, shaking her head at her poor planning, and chose a direction at random. The fates must have been smiling down at her, because after roughly half an hour of walking, she heard someone yell,

“JASON TODD!” and a young, dark-haired boy darted out of a corner store, a plastic-wrapped sandwich in his hands. Ella smiled in relief, starting to walk towards him, but _maybe the fates weren’t all that smiley_ , Ella thought as she watched Jason run out into the street, directly into an oncoming car. The car bumped him - it didn’t look like he got hit too hard - and Ella shouted in alarm as Jason got thrown onto his back in the middle of the street. She started to run to him, but the driver of the car and the worker from the store got to him first, both of them red in the face from rage. The worker picked Jason up by the front of his shirt and shook him, ignoring Jason’s cry of pain. As she got to them, Ella picked up the sandwich from where Jason had dropped it, shoving it at the worker and telling him to fuck off. As he stormed back to the store, he shot Ella a nasty glare. Ella caught Jason and slowly set him down on the sidewalk, looking up in time to see the driver get back into his car and leave. Jason tried to sit up, but Ella gently pushed him back down. He winced up at her.

“Do… do I know you?” he asked.

“Kind of?” Ella said, “I used to know your parents, but… you were one the last time I saw you.” Jason tried to get up again, but Ella tutted disapprovingly, “You just got hit by a car, hold still until I can figure out how hurt you are. Trust me, I’m a nurse.” She gave him a look-over, finding his only visible injuries to be some cuts and bruises. As soon as she gave him the all-clear, Jason jumped to his feet, wincing a little, and went to leave, but turned back around, thinking. 

“What do you mean, you used to know my parents? Why has it been so long since you last saw me? Why didn’t my mom say anything about you?” He demanded, and _huh_ , that didn’t sound right.

“Your… your mom?” Jason wrinkled his nose at her confusion.

“Yes, my mom. Didn’t you say you knew her? Catherine Todd?” Ella shook her head.

“Not - evidently not her, then. Jason, I didn’t want to dump this information on you like this, because I didn’t know Willis” she silently took note of Jason’s reaction to the name “had remarried. Catherine Todd is… she’s your stepmother, Jason.” Jason blinked a couple of times before vehemently shaking his head, convinced Ella was lying to him.

“No!” He protested, “No, you’re lying to me!” Ella shook her head calmly, not pursuing when Jason scrambled away from her. His shock at her patience, however, caused him to stop in his tracks and look at her more closely. Specifically, he was peering at her eyes, possibly making the connection to his own eyes (He had to admit, they had the exact same eyes). He relaxed further, walking closer to Ella. “You… um…” he seemed unsure of what to say, but he managed to stammer out, “You said that you were a nurse?” Ella nodded her head, and Jason asked, “My mom’s… she’s really sick. Can - can you help her?” Ella smiled and patted his shoulder.

“I can try, Jason. Can you take me to her?” He paused, then nodded, gesturing for Ella to follow him. He led her down the street, turning into a significantly worse part of the city, and making his way to a down-trodden apartment building. Ella frowned as Jason led her into the building, bringing her up two flights of stairs that were littered with piles of trash, clothing, and needles. He lived like this? Ella needed to have a talk with Willis. 

He stopped in front of a door, looking terribly nervous, nearly scared out of his wits, and reached up to open the door. It swung open, revealing a trashed living room. Wrinkling her nose, she stepped inside cautiously, not exactly trusting the floor to hold her weight. The floor creaked alarmingly under her feet, and someone stepped out from another room - Willis Todd. From where he was standing, Ella was mostly obscured by a cabinet and poor lighting. Ignorant to her presence, Willis descended on his son, shouting and screaming obscenities at him, berating him for something Ella couldn’t pick up on, a drunken slur fogging his words. He stepped closer to Jason, raising his hand, and Ella moved, catching Willis’ hand midair. He looked at her in dumbfounded shock, before recognition spread over his face, and then fear.

“Sheila?” He asked, and well, maybe he didn’t quite recognize her. She shook her head, her mouth pressed into a grim line, and Willis blinked, once, twice, three times. “Ella?” He tried, and she nodded. Before either of them could say anything, another person stepped into the room; a thin, gaunt specter of a woman, wrapped in a blanket, face pale with stark black shadows under her eyes. Jason ducked past his father and ran to her - she must be his stepmother - and Willis turned to grab him, but Ella yanked him back to face her, a white-knuckled grasp on his wrist. Her eyes flashed. 

“Were you… were you going to _hit_ your son?” She asked, and Willis swallowed nervously, “You’ve already crossed the line with the way you spoke to him, and you were going to go _further_ and _hit_ him?” He tried to defend himself, stepping backwards, and out of the corner of her eye, Ella saw Jason stepping in front of his mother, seemingly trying to protect her, and another wave of anger flared back up. Before she could stop herself, she threatened, “I shot my own husband for less - remember Raymond?” 

Willis stammered and spluttered and took frantic steps backwards when Ella drew her gun, but she did not fire. Instead, she stepped very close to him, pressing the gun to his ribcage and firmly setting her other hand on his shoulder, looking deeply into his eyes as she delivered her ultimatum.

“I am taking Jason and his stepmother, and we are leaving Gotham, and you are never to follow us, track us down, contact us, or come anywhere near us, _ever again_. If you do any of those things, you _will_ join Raymond, six feet under.” Willis’ face had turned sheet-white, and his mouth was opening and closing silently, much like a face. Seemingly satisfied with his response, Ella put her gun away and practically shoved Willis out of the way, walking up to Jason and his stepmother. She put her hand out to shake. “Hello, my name is Ella Haywood. I am Jason’s biological aunt.” The woman smiled weakly and took Ella’s hand, and Ella mentally noted how frail and shaky she was.

“Hello, Ms. Haywood. My name is Catherine Todd.” Ella smiled warmly, tilting her head slightly. “You said we were leaving Gotham?” She asked, and then before Ella could add anything, she continued, “I am very weak, and it will take you very long if you choose to take me along with you-” Ella cut Catherine off before she could continue. 

“Don’t worry about that, Catherine. You are obviously very important to Jason, and I would never attempt to separate the two of you.” She sent a glare over her shoulder to Willis before turning back and telling Jason and Catherine to gather whatever important things they needed. She kept an eye on Willis as the other two packed, placing her hands on Jason and Catherine’s shoulders and leading them out of the building when they were done.

When they got to Ella’s hotel room, Ella asked Jason if he could move into another room so that she could ask Catherine about her illness. She sat across from her, noticing how Catherine shifted in her seat uncomfortably and looked guilty - and Ella was fairly certain she knew why.

“You’re not sick… with an _illness_ , are you?” Catherine avoided Ella’s eyes, looking down at her hands, and nodded. She took a shaky breath and pressed her thumb into the palm of her other hand before responding. 

“N-no… you’re right. I’m - I’m not sick, but my sickness… my sickness is from… I’m addicted. To… many things.” Ella took a quiet, deep breath.

“How much does Jason know about this? What sorts of drugs are you on?” Jason was aware of her addiction but not how bad it was or that her sickness was because of her addiction, and she was currently not on anything but dealing with multiple prescription addictions. Ella mentally ran through her knowledge on the listed drugs and how to treat them, moving on to what to tell Jason. 

She decided to tell him that she would be doing her best to help his mother, and they willingly went with her to Vermont. Jason’s first plane ride was amusing, and Ella watched fondly, the wonder in his eyes mirroring the wonder she’d seen years ago, back on his first birthday*. When they landed, Ella noted worriedly that Catherine had gotten weaker, and was relying possibly too heavily on Ella for support. She got them into her car and drove them to her house, getting them set up in her guest room. 

As time passed, many problems arose - the main one being Catherine’s addiction. Quitting cold turkey was a bad idea, but it was the only option. Despite all of the problems that she went through with withdrawals, Ella and Jason stayed with her the entire time, making sure there was no way for her to get her hands on any sort of drug, and keeping an eye on her health. 

When she finally got sober and stayed that way, in a stark contrast from all of the other times, when she’d promise that ‘this is the last time’, she did what she had been wanting to do for a very long time, and went back to school (for geology). Ella helped pay for her admission without batting an eye, and Jason cheered her on with a cheerful enthusiasm found in nobody other than a young child. 

Jason flourished under Ella and Catherine’s competent co-parenting. His favorite place to go was the city park, with plenty of sun, space to play, and, of course, an ice cream truck. The women were content to sit on a park bench and watch Jason play. He was also a big fan of the library, checking out armfuls of books almost every week. 

He asked, once every few months, about his biological mother. Ella was reluctant to tell him about her, but decided that telling him good stories about Sheila would be the best way to go about it, in the hopes that she never showed back up (considering how things had ended, that was a safe bet). He was barely sixteen when _it_ happened - late one night, Ella heard a knock at her door, and there was Batman. She raised her eyebrow, unsure of how to respond to this. 

“You must be Ella Haywood.” He said, and she nodded. “I’m sorry, Ms. Haywood, but your sister, Sheila, was killed in Ethiopia.” Ella closed her eyes and sighed, not feeling as bad as she felt she should, which made her feel worse. 

“Thank… thank you for telling me… Batman.” He told her that it was the Joker who had killed Sheila, and that Sheila’s corpse was in the town morgue. She nodded and closed the door in his face. She sighed, ducking her head a little. Of course, Sheila’s death means Jason would never get to meet her, which was of course horrible, but this does mean that he’ll never have to know what kind of person she was. 

When Jason got up in the morning, Ella calmly placed her hands on his shoulder and looked at him gently, breaking the news to him. He wasn’t sure how to react, stammering and choking on his words, eyes welling with tears that he tried to wipe away. Ella pulled him into a hug. 

Jason ended up going to college for a Bachelor’s in English, graduating top of his class and taking a job at his library. He took a summer trip to Gotham in his senior year of college, meeting a young man named Tim Drake and becoming good friends with him and his older brother, Dick Grayson. He found out about their secret identities after getting kidnapped during a trip to Gotham gone wrong, but he did nothing about it, only returning to Vermont without telling anyone about the events he had just witnessed (of course, Catherine and Ella knew about him getting kidnapped, but he didn’t give them any details).

**Author's Note:**

> *see chapter 4, part _juin_ of "you can't get stabbed in vermont"


End file.
